On 01/05/2012 11:06, Tim Streater wrote:
....
Some 40 years ago I was buying as it might be apples in a greengrocer's
in Naples. Change was 400 lire, and he showed me four 100 lire coins in
his hand. Turns his hand over to drop the coins in my palm, put puts his
thumb over one of the coins. Result: 300 lire in my hand.


Greengrocers everywhere seem to be prone to short changing and other
tricks. In a local market, now closed, one greengrocery stall holder was
known to the locals as weigh thumb.

Colin Bignell

Nightjar wrote
Tim Streater wrote

Some 40 years ago I was buying as it might be apples in a greengrocer's
in Naples. Change was 400 lire, and he showed me four 100 lire coins in
his hand. Turns his hand over to drop the coins in my palm, put puts his
thumb over one of the coins. Result: 300 lire in my hand.

Greengrocers everywhere seem to be prone to short changing and other
tricks.

Mine actually makes it completely trivial to rip them off.

They now have self checkouts and with the loose fruit and veg,
you have to tell the system what it is. So there is nothing to stop
you telling it that its the cheapest say potatoes when you have
actually got the most expensive etc.

And it wouldnt be hard to plead ignorance if the droid catches you either.

In a local market, now closed, one greengrocery stall holder was known to
the locals as weigh thumb.

Its easy enough to see them doing that tho.

With our farmers market, the crew flogging hydroponic tomatoes
has you put the tomatoes you want into a plastic bag from the pile on
the front of the table, you put it on the electronic scales yourself and
she reads the price off. It would be obvious if she put her hand on it.

And there isnt anyone anywhere near the scales cept you with the self
checkouts in the supermarket.

Rod Speed wrote:
Nightjar wrote
Tim Streater wrote

Some 40 years ago I was buying as it might be apples in a
greengrocer's in Naples. Change was 400 lire, and he showed me
four 100 lire coins in his hand. Turns his hand over to drop the
coins in my palm, put puts his thumb over one of the coins.
Result: 300 lire in my hand.

Greengrocers everywhere seem to be prone to short changing and other
tricks.

Mine actually makes it completely trivial to rip them off.

They now have self checkouts and with the loose fruit and veg,
you have to tell the system what it is. So there is nothing to stop
you telling it that it's the cheapest say potatoes when you have
actually got the most expensive etc.

And it wouldn't be hard to plead ignorance if the droid catches you
either.

There is not a jury in the world that would convict you with that plea.

--
Adam

ARWadsworth wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Nightjar wrote
Tim Streater wrote

Some 40 years ago I was buying as it might be apples in a
greengrocer's in Naples. Change was 400 lire, and he showed me
four 100 lire coins in his hand. Turns his hand over to drop the
coins in my palm, put puts his thumb over one of the coins.
Result: 300 lire in my hand.

Greengrocers everywhere seem to be prone to short changing and other
tricks.

Mine actually makes it completely trivial to rip them off.

They now have self checkouts and with the loose fruit and veg,
you have to tell the system what it is. So there is nothing to stop
you telling it that it's the cheapest say potatoes when you have
actually got the most expensive etc.

And it wouldn't be hard to plead ignorance if the droid catches you
either.

There is not a jury in the world that would convict you with that plea.

We don’t have jurys for that sort of crime here.

Some of the magistrates would have your guts for
garters, but it'd never make it to a magistrate either.

On 01/05/2012 22:38, Rod Speed wrote:
Nightjar wrote
....
In a local market, now closed, one greengrocery stall holder was known
to the locals as weigh thumb.

Its easy enough to see them doing that tho....

How do you think she got the name?

Colin Bignell

In message , Nightjar
writes
On 01/05/2012 11:06, Tim Streater wrote:
...
Some 40 years ago I was buying as it might be apples in a greengrocer's
in Naples. Change was 400 lire, and he showed me four 100 lire coins in
his hand. Turns his hand over to drop the coins in my palm, put puts his
thumb over one of the coins. Result: 300 lire in my hand.


Greengrocers everywhere seem to be prone to short changing and other
tricks. In a local market, now closed, one greengrocery stall holder
was known to the locals as weigh thumb.

Umm.. My family ran such a stall on St. Albans street market. While
experimentally weighing something at my proper job, the watchers fell
about laughing because I had automatically *tickled* the scale pan.

In defence of sold by weight traders, the old *knife edge* balance
scales always weighed on the customer's side. The *tickling* was to
establish whether the item was significantly *overweight* allowing say a
small potato to be removed.

regards
--
Tim Lamb

Nightjar wrote:
[snip]

Greengrocers everywhere seem to be prone to short changing and other
tricks. In a local market, now closed, one greengrocery stall holder was
known to the locals as weigh thumb.

One market trader in Stockport was known for displaying fresh produce at
the front of the stall and selling out of date stock from the back of the
pile. I recall him having a fit at me for choosing my own fruit from the
front (which left holes showing the manky rubbish behind the carefully
constructed wall of fresh fruit).